Kingdom Hearts Debut
by Sweet as a Unicorn
Summary: A new mmorpg has just come out and Oriole is iffy about it, though still ends up buying it. With promises of action, fantasy, and mystery, will the game hold up to its promises? Or will it be so much more? SYOC! CLOSED!
1. The Prologue

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Ⓣ.ⓗ.ⓔ

 _ **The Prologue**_

Ⓟ.ⓡ.ⓞ.ⓛ.ⓞ.ⓖ.ⓤ.ⓔ

* * *

 _Would you pick a sword or a hammer? Maybe a bow or a staff? Would you side with good or focus on chaos? Maybe you would just stick to yourself and remain neutral. The choice is yours when it comes to the life of your alter ego in the biggest online game of the year. With everything being left up to you, your destiny is literally up to you._

. . .

The paragraph on the back of the box made Oriole shake her head. To her it sounded like every other online role-play game. Character creation, quests, side-choosing; she had seen it all before. Even without liking the type of games, she probably could still list ten other games with the same premise. Still, she continued to hold the game box in front of her.

"Kingdom Hearts Debut," she read aloud.

Kingdom Hearts was a new series of games between the animation mogul, Disney, and a Japanese gaming company, Square. The idea behind them was an entire universe that held all the worlds of Disney. Classics like Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the newer ones like Tarzan and Atlantis, many movies were included in the game. The games would target many Disney fans, dangling their favourite characters in front of them and tempting them to try the game. Kingdom Hearts Debut was the first of many planned to come. Or at least that was what Oriole had heard.

The game had just come out, like only a couple days ago. Still it was already blowing up everywhere. Copies were apparently selling like hotcakes. The premise of creating your own character and interacting with your favourite Disney characters was quite attractive to many. The game was a mmorpg – massively multiplayer online role-play game – thus promising a lot of customization and interaction. Though this was something Oriole did not find all too eye-catching.

Oriole never particularly liked mmorpgs. It was the whole feeling of being forced to interact with other people just to play a game with no true storyline. She felt like it was pointless unless you wanted to be social. If you were a social person, mmorpgs were the games for you. Other than that, they weren't all too fun. Oriole was the type of person not to sit in the middle of a group and join in the discussion. She would much rather be held up in her room and playing her PS2, ripping people's spines out, or watching movies. She even liked Disney, but the game was not really pulling her in.

She continued to read the back of the box, hoping that something would catch her eye. She wanted to like the game so badly. It was about Disney, something she had grown up on like many other people. She wanted to like a game involving Disney characters, but it was getting hard with this.

"Man, this character customization really goes deep," she mumbled.

That was one of the many problems she read about with mmorpgs these days. They weren't as detailed as people wanted them to be. She may not play them, but she read the magazines. She knew how limited they were when it came to customization. Most of the times it was just a base character of either gender and you could merely change their hair and skin colour; sometimes even their eye colour. The rest would be the same as everyone else; face, clothing, body shape, height, all of it. This game, Debut, had more options than she would have imagined. From what the box said, the game supposedly allowed the player to create everything from head to two. From hair colour to length to style… From eye colour and shape to skin tone… From height to weight to body shape… All that and some more, and that was only physical. Apparently the game also allowed you to customize and upgrading clothing and armor for your character, along with weapons and accessories. The pictures they showed made Oriole almost gasp.

"The graphics are amazing," she said.

Oriole was obviously big into games, so graphics were important to her. A good game can become great with good enough graphics. The same can go for the opposite however; a good game can become horrible with some bad graphics. This game however took it a step further. Their graphics were unlike anything Oriole had seen before. The details were amazing. She scanned over the pictures they had layering the bottom back of the box.

"Six classes…"

She continued to read a bit as she gawked at the pictures.

Apparently there were six classes in the game; sword-wielders, hammer-wielders, bow-wielders, circle-wielders, staff-wielders, and wand-wielders. They sounded completely made up, probably because they were. Oriole had expected a little more cliché-ness when it came to the classes, just like every mmorpg game did. But it looked like Disney and Square took another route and went with the ridiculous sounding classes.

The six classes were split into three groups. The melee classes were the sword-wielders and the hammer-wielders. The sword-wielders fought with swords, while the hammer-wielders found with hammers. Sword-wielders seemed the most basic of the classes, while the hammer-wielders looked more like the berserkers. Then there were the ranged classes; the bow-wielders and the circle-wielders. Bow-wielders found with bow and arrows. Circle-wielders were a bit more interesting, fighting with Indian throwing weapons, Chakrams, which were circular bladed weapons. The last group was the magic using classes; the staff-wielders and the wand-wielders. They each fought with magic using their namesake, with staff-wielders using black-based attack magic and wand-wielders using white-based healing magic.

"This is complicated," Oriole commented under her breath.

There would probably be more details in the booklet inside, but from the box Oriole was starting to get a headache how confusing it all was. Six classes, each with their own stats… This was never anything Oriole had ever had to concern herself with.

She went to put the box back on the shelf in front of her when something caught her eye.

"Can you discover the secret behind the Heartless and the reason why they occupy the universe of Kingdom Hearts?" she read.

A storyline! It was a faint one, barely there compared to regular games, but it was an attempt at a storyline. She hated mmorpgs for the exact reason of them not having a storyline nor attempting to even have one. Yet here was one, or at least she hoped.

She gripped the box, flipping it around to look at the front. The main np-characters faces stared at her from the cover. Apparently their names were Sora, Kiari, and Riku. Either way they were smiling at Oriole, calling for her to join them online.

"Should I really?" she asked.

 _. . ._

 _Out of the mist, floating on velvet blue. Carried away to a place where dreams come true._

* * *

 **So** _ **Kingdom Hearts Debut**_ **won the vote and here is the prologue. This is a SYOC set in an AU. Set in the "real world" in the fictional town of Perdu, the year is 2002 and the first Kingdom Hearts game has come out. Instead of it being Kingdom Hearts for the PS2, it is a computer mmorpg called Kingdom Hearts Debut. With strangely amazing graphics and a great interactive-face, this game is one of dreams. Still there is something about it...  
**

 **The quote at the end is from Tokyo DisneySea's song, "** _ **Imagination**_ **".**

 **SYOC is closed!  
**


	2. Chapter One

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Ⓒ.ⓗ.ⓐ.ⓟ.ⓣ.ⓔ.ⓡ

 **Chapter One**

Ⓞ.ⓝ.ⓔ

* * *

Oriole had returned home after she had finished her shopping. She held a cluster of bags in both hands as she somehow managed to work the front door open and enter. No one was home to greet her, though she wasn't expecting anyone. Her parents worked most week hours, which they did to provide for the family, so Oriole couldn't complain. It wasn't like they enjoyed being gone most of the week either.

She plopped the bags on the kitchen counters and began to rummage through them. She had gone out for groceries and basic necessities. Things from spaghetti to toilet paper were crammed inside both plastic and fabric bags. She began to put away the food first. This was just one of the many ways she helped out around the house. She originally had gotten a part time job to help bring in some money, but her parents refused to take their teenager daughter's money; no matter how strongly she offered it. So now she just insists on doing all the chores she can muster. That included grocery shopping. Later she would be making dinner to two very hunger and tired adults.

She had gotten half-way through putting away the groceries when she stopped in her tracks. She had opened the bag from W-Mart. It had no food in it – she didn't even know why she opened it to begin with, she knew that there was no food to put away in it. All that was in there was the brightly coloured box with three distinct anime characters on the front. She didn't know what came over her, but she had ended up buying the game.

"I shouldn't have gotten it," she muttered, quickly closing up the bag to hide the box from her.

She hadn't thought about her family's financial problems at the time she was looking at the game nor when she was in the check-out line purchasing the game. It was only once she got home that she remembered that they couldn't afford frivolous purchases like this. While it was technically her pay checks – two months' worth to be exact – and her parents were constantly telling her to spend her own money how she pleased, she didn't like to go around spending money willy-nilly. She preferred to save it in case of emergencies.

But the game, it had called out to her in the store. There was something about it that just made Oriole have to get it. Or at least, she felted like she was being compelled to get it. Maybe the packaging worked and had brainwashed her into getting it, scrubbing her mind clear of all her worries? Or maybe she was just being selfish and just _wanted_ the game. Either way, she had gotten it without thinking too much about until now.

She let out a sigh and opened the bag again. Looking at the box, she began to think about what she should do. She could easily return it and get a refund. That would be the appropriate and adult thing to do. But then there was that little voice in her mind that kept nagging her to try it. She really wanted to, which was, of course, the reason she got it. She wanted to see if the graphics were really that good. She wanted to see if there was any hint of a storyline present. She wanted to see if this game lived up to the hype set up by the media. The little voice was also telling her that if she didn't like it, she could always return it for a gift card to W-Mart. She could always by groceries or something important with that gift care later.

"Shoot," she cursed under her breath.

Closing the bag, she didn't know which to choose. She merely went back to putting away groceries and everything, trying to figure out what to do.

. . .

After finishing up her chores and putting everything away, Oriole sauntered to her room. She still hadn't made a decision and wasn't even leaning towards one or another. She knew which she should choose, but she wanted to choose the other.

"If I get a gift card, I can spend it on groceries or gifts for my parents or something," she said aloud, making an argument for one side. "But I won't be responsible if I don't return it and that isn't me."

She dropped on her back onto her bed; the bag with the game landing beside her with a soft "plonk". She looked up at the ceiling all while an argument went on in her head between herself and herself. Problem was, she didn't know if she was winning.

She rolled over on her bed, which lay against the middle of a wall, and looked towards the far right corner of her room. The "television" stand she had found at a yard sale stood there. Really it was a quite hideous mini-shelf with cracking black paint coating it in uneven layers. It was sturdy and all, but that was really all it had going for it. On top was one of the ugliest box televisions. All the buttons had fallen of the front and the remote to it had gone missing five months ago. The only way to turn it on was with a pen or pencil and pushing the "buttons" with that, because there was no way Oriole was going to risk something happening cause of that darn television. Hooked up to it however was a nice and well-taken care of PS2. There was no way Oriole or her family could afford to replace it, so she took good care of it. Beside the shelve, starting on the floor, was a tall stack of games Oriole had managed to collect from yard sales, clearance bins, and friend's hand-me-downs. It also reached to the top of the shelf.

 _Now if only it had cost the price of one, even a few, of you,_ she thought.

She was always able to find games for a good price, she just had to look. But there was no chance this would be marked down or found in a box at a yard sale anytime soon. This was really the first time she had ever paid full price for a game.

She flipped over and looked at the other wall. There, as if calling out to her, was her desk and, sitting on top of it, her computer. A mere desktop, it had enough graphics to run most games. She got it for Christmas one year after her parents saved up for it year-round. Right now, it felt like the computer was arguing for the side for her to play the game.

Without much thinking, she sat up and began to walk over to desk. She pressed the button to turn it on and began to let it load.

 _Maybe if my computer can run it, I will try the game_ , she thought, trying to convince herself.

She had a feeling her computer could run the game, but she was slightly hoping it couldn't.

The computer turned on and she pulled up the specifications of her computer. Just like she thought, her computer was more than enough powerful to run it. There was really nothing holding her back from playing it other than her own guilt and nervousness. It was up to her in the end to decide what she did next.

. . .

She exhaled as she placed the disc in the tray. Behind her, lying on her bed was the newly opened box and torn plastic it was wrapped in. She couldn't help it and caved – with her lack of will – into playing the game.

Hearing the disc spin in the computer, she waited for it to fully install. Really, a gift card isn't the worst thing she could get in return. At least she would be compensated if she returned it, so really, in her mind, there was nothing holding her back from trying it.

 _Ding!_

Her computer's ping announced the end of the install and a blue window popped up, willing her to continue; to play. Pressing the "Play" button in the center of the window and soon her screen was replaced with a black background with a bright, radiating yellow moon shaped like a soft heart positioned in the center. In front of the moon was a faint silhouette. It looked like an unidentified person – probably a player character or an NPC not mentioned yet – looking towards the moon. Oriole couldn't help but find this image captivating. It was much prettier than the box art. She wondered why they didn't use this instead of that blindingly bright image they had chosen. This was simple yet compelling. It drew her in and she hadn't even reached the main menu yet.

The loading bar at the bottom of the screen filled up too fast for Oriole's liking, as she was enjoying the calmness and air of fantasy the splash screen was giving. It soon enough disappearance and was replaced with the main menu. A black screen with cycling "photographs" of screenshots of the game. It looked like a slideshow of old-style Polaroid pictures of staged events that might happen inside the game. One picture was of a group of boy player avatars running through a dark, yet very cartoony world – one that looked like a cartoony gothic Vegas. Another picture appeared over that of a girl running through what appeared to be 100-Acre Woods. While this didn't truly captivate Oriole like the splash screen did, it did increase her interest a bit.

Oriole hadn't read the pamphlet that came with the game yet, so she didn't know which worlds they had available in the game yet. She was curious, but kind of wanted to play the game first. She didn't want the promises of the pamphlet to affect her decision in keeping the game. She wanted the gameplay to speak for itself first.

"Well, I guess there is no stopping me now," she said.

After clicking the "New User" button, she was instructed and dragged through the sign-up process. She felt it was a little too much work to play a Disney game, but she trudged through it still. The form was finally filled up and the process done. She was finally able to do what she had originally planned; time to create her alter ego.

In front of her on the screen stood a blank canvas; a basic avatar with no defined features, such as hair, eyes, style, anything. It could be described as a "vanilla" avatar. This was merely the game's way of allowing the player to create and customize their character easier. Oriole however was already having a difficult time.

"How should I do this?" she wondered aloud. "Should she look like me?"

She never considered herself to be pretty. In her mind, she was incredibly plain. Her black hair was unattractively short. It ended awkwardly somewhere between her ears and shoulders, and if you took in to consideration of the waves present in her hair, it made her hair look strangely messy; even after being constantly brushed to the point of pointlessness. Her face was pudgy and her brown eyes small. Her skin was too pale and she was technically overweight. Her parents told her she wasn't fat, but she definitely wasn't thin. In her eyes, she was just plain and ugly.

Without saying anything, she just shook her head.

"Let's start with the face and see where I go from there," she said, clicking on the head.

She was directed to start customizing the face. She didn't want the character to look anything like her. Not only because she didn't feel like she deserved to have a mini-me, but because she didn't want to be recognized. If someone from her school played the game and recognized her, they might torment her. Even if they played the game, she would be bullied for playing a "kid's" game. It may not make sense, but that was the mindset of a bully. So she wasn't going to go with a copy. But she didn't want something that looked too insanely beautiful either. She wanted a realistic beauty to her avatar, something she would wish to look like.

After finishing the avatar's face, she moved on to the hair. This was a bit easier than her face. Oriole was defiantly not going to use her hair, even if she found one similar to her own – which she doubted she could, as… really? Besides, everyone tended to exaggerate when it came to at least their hair. They wouldn't try to match their hair when it came to online games, or so she had seen through websites and blogs surrounded mmorpgs.

The body came next. Much like the face, she didn't want her avatar to have the same body as hers. It also didn't seem realistic for this type of game. This seemed like an adventure-type of game which players would constantly be fighting or traveling around. The only place Oriole could think someone looking like her would belong in that world would be playing the silly sidekick and she didn't want that for her avatar. Nothing over exaggerated, but definitely attractive.

After finally picking her clothes and twenty minutes putting everything together, Oriole finally had her finished avatar. From her point of view, her avatar was a true beauty. Her face was more elongated, coming to a point at the chin. Her cheekbones were more prominent. The avatar's eyes were larger than Oriole's and more almond-shaped. They were also a light hazel. Her skin was a tanned olive tone. The avatar's hair had a similar length to Oriole's own hair; ending a little closer to her shoulders, but still not touching them. However the avatar's hair was a vibrant electric blue and pin-straight. It was held back by a thick black headband. The only thing that really remained close to Oriole was the avatar's height, which remained short – just barely above five foot for reference. But her frame shrunk. She wasn't as chubby as Oriole thought she was. She wasn't thin either, but more along a healthy medium for the character's height. Oriole didn't want to make her curvaceous, so went more along the lines of small and flat.

To finish off the avatar's appearance was her clothing. Oriole didn't really think this much through, as it didn't really matter to her. She knew she would end up probably replacing it later with better armor. It didn't concern her as much as it would concern others. She picked a simple enough pastel purple spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of dark jean shorts. Over the tank top she wore a loose hanging grey vest. She also wore a pair of golden brown boots that went to mid-calf and a pair of white knee-high socks appearing from the top of them.

"Maybe I should add some more aspects of myself to the character," she said, but didn't move her mouse to change anything.

Instead, she swept the cursor over to the bottom right and clicked the check mark to accept the character. A window popped up in front of the avatar. It asked for a name for the avatar.

"A name huh?" Oriole parroted.

This was another thing that people tended to take great consideration in choosing. It would stick with you for your entire time playing this character. And if you put in some actual time into making your character, you wouldn't to be walking around with some stupid name the whole time. Oriole was stumped.

"What… Should… I… Call… You?" she asked aloud, tapping her head between each word.

She looked around her room for some inspiration. It couldn't be that hard to come up with a name, right?

"Red Lamp," she said as she looked at her desk light.

Well, maybe it would be a bit hard. She shook her head at the stupid idea of a person named "Red Light" – though really thinking about it, there could be someone out there named "Red Light". But not her. She continued to look. She spun around in her desk chair, scouring her room with eagle eyes, trying to get something so she could continue. Her eyes landed on a stack of books beside her stack of games. They were some text books from school. She had put them there to help remind her to study instead of playing games; stacking them there to help get her attention when should would look at her games. It didn't really work, but she had been too lazy to move them. She got up and grabbed the top text book. Maybe she could find something cool and unique from one of the books. She wasn't getting anything from just looking around her room, so what can it hurt.

She opened the cover and read the names of the people who had the book before her.

"Dino Spud…" she read. "Ah, no."

She began to flip through the pages and began to realize she had picked up her science book. She hadn't really noticed when she picked it up. A history book might have been a better choice for names, but a science book could be cool too. She ended up stopping on the chapter her class had read about recently. It was filled with facts and details about cells of the human body. Things really they had already learned about their freshman year, but they were about to move on to their dissection portion of the class so they had been refreshing.

"Cell?" she said, suggesting the word to herself.

Probably not available, she figured. It was such a common word, there was no way it wouldn't have been taken. Even though the game was relatively new, there was bound to be tons of people already playing due to getting it on the first day of the release. So simple names like "Cell" and such would probably be taken. Still, it couldn't hurt to check.

She typed in the four letter word and clicked enter. The word 'accepted' popped up and before Oriole knew it, her character had been created. She was a bit surprised that the name wasn't taken, but was perfectly alright with that. She now had her character, Cell. She was both excited and weary to continue.

"Let's play," she said.

* * *

 **HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!**

 **And with that out of the way… The story has officially started and that means I have the official cast list (accepted character list). It can be found on my profile underneath the "Cast List" section labeled as "Kingdom Hearts Debut". While this chapter focused entirely on Oriole and the creation of Cell, more characters – both in the real world and in the game – will appear. I promise.**

 **I originally wrote at the beginning of the week. It ended up being roughly 2,250 words and I thought it was really good. I guess it was the mixture of the length plus getting it out of the way early that led me to believe this. But after rereading it, I felt it had some problems with it, so I rewrote it. This rewrite is longer, being a skosh over 3,000 words. I'm sorry if it is too long, I just wanted to get this all out of the way and felt like two or three chapters of this might have been too much. I didn't want super short chapter either. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it or at least enjoy the idea of being able to actually get to the game next chapter.**

 **As for Oriole… I wanted to make a character that doesn't have the most confidence (something I seem to like to give my characters in stories; confidence that is). She isn't truly ugly – at least in my opinion – but she isn't perfect, so she feels ugly.**


	3. Chapter Two

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Ⓒ.ⓗ.ⓐ.ⓟ.ⓣ.ⓔ.ⓡ

 **Chapter Two**

Ⓣ.ⓦ.ⓞ

* * *

Oriole was thrown in from the dark loading screen into a bright, vibrant world. It was filled with almost realistic settings, though still maintained a cartoony feeling about it all. It was an island and she was standing on the sand, looking out at the vivid blue ocean. She looked down at the sand and it looked so textured. It was like she could almost touch the grains. Looking back up, she turned around to get a full view of the island. It was obviously small, but still held so much on it. The main focus was really this large tree that held what looked like something beyond a simple tree house. It had a walkway that encircled the tree as it went up. The walkway went to a large deck a top the tree and to a slightly hidden area inside the tree that she could see the uncovered doorway for. Behind the tree was a cliff with a waterfall splash down. The rest of her vision was taken up with greenery.

"Cell!"

Oriole jumped at the call of her avatar's name. She wasn't expected something to disrupt her so quickly. She also wasn't ready for her avatar's name to be called out. She had to remember that in the game she was Cell.

"Cell!"

Her name was called out again, causing her to turn to the person. Running towards her was a boy with soft, dirty blonde hair. He had an exhausted look on his face; his blue eyes narrowed and he was panting. Yet he continued to run, despite all this.

"Seriously, I've been looking for you," he said.

It would be obvious to anyone this boy was a NPC. The way he acted was way too programmed. He acted so happy to see Cell, despite her taken back by his condition. That and he didn't have any player information available, which was available on all player characters.

The boy quickly reached Cell's spot and stood directly in front of her. And through his panting, he continued to talk.

"It's a beautiful sight and all, but I don't think now is the time to be looking at all this," he said, gesturing to the view of the ocean.

Suddenly, as if by some sort of miracle, the boy caught all his breath and hoped back to his "normal" stance. It was like his energy was just refilled.

"First of, I should welcome you to Kingdom Hearts Debut," he said. "My name is Tidus, be sure to remember that. I'm the melee trainer here, meaning I'm going to be training you on how to interact with the world."

Tidus sure seemed proud, which put off Cell a bit.

"You choose to be a sword-wielder, which is one of the two melee classes," he explained. "But I'm sure you remember that. The other is hammer-wielder. I train both and help them level up."

He pulled out a short wooden sword and showed it to her. It was pretty silly in terms of weapons. It looked more like a toy than something to actually try to fight with.

"This is my sword. Not as fancy as some of the swords you'll see later on, but it gets the job done," he said. "You have to start off small before you have the chance to grow. In fact, here…"

Another wooden sword appeared in Tidus' other hand, reminding Cell this was a game and that things that normally wouldn't make sense do happen. This sword was a lighter shade than Tidus' and looked a bit smaller, though not by much.

"This is yours," Tidus said before handing over the smaller sword.

Cell took it. It was fairly light, though being wood, that was somewhat expected. She would be more surprised if it had the same weight as say an iron sword would normally have.

"And now that you have a weapon," he said. "Let's get this tutorial started, shall we?"

Tidus' stance quickly changed. He went from his normal posture – the basic standing position – to an attack position. He gripped his sword tightly while aiming it at Cell.

"Change your position to attack position," he commanded. "This will mean you're prepared to fight."

Cell stood there for a second before finally matching Tidus in his stance. Hers looked a little clumsier than his, but she just wrote that off as her inexperience. She hoped that as she gained more experience and leveled up, it would change.

"Good," he said. "Now let's start with basic strikes. These are what you'll normally attack with. You will be able to use harder, more difficult attacks later on, but for now you can only use basic strikes. To hit your target – right now, me – just aim and lunge. Understand?"

A long pause followed before, in a slightly quiet voice, Cell said, "Um, sure."

"Good, now try to hit me," he commanded.

Cell, still in her awkward stance, gripped her sword and stared at Tidus. She "locked on" to her target – in this case, Tidus – and lurched forward. Despite how stupid she looked in her attack stance, her attack looked a whole lot better. She wasn't as quick as she had hoped for, but she didn't look inapt. She leaped towards Tidus and swung at his torso. In response, he brought up his own sword and blocked her attack. He gave a push as soon as their swords made contact and shoved her away. She fell back, stumbling back into her awkward attack stance once more.

"You're learning quickly," he said.

She knew he said that to everyone he trains, but she still felt a little proud of herself.

"As you just witnessed, I blocked and parried your attack," he explained. "To parry, or countermove, an enemy's attack you first must block the attack. This can be simple by either using a shield or using your sword. As you do not have a shield, you need to hold your sword. Ready to try?"

"Sure," Cell said.

"Right," he said. "Now be warned, I'm pretty good."

Without much else warning, Tidus lunged at Cell. He brought up his sword and went to bring it down on her head. She fell backwards, avoiding his attack and accidently figuring out how to dodge at the same time.

"Don't dodge, block," he ordered.

He continued to lung at her and went to attack her again. This time he swung his sword horizontally, aiming at her lower side. Cell was more prepared for this and brought up her own sword just in time to block his oncoming attack. Tidus jumped back just as Cell blocked the attack. Without saying a word or waiting at all, he went to attack her again. He repeated his first attack – headshot. Cell wasn't going to dodge this time. No, this time she brought up her sword and brought it between her face and Tidus' sword. His hit her sword with a loud thud, though she was able to hold up against him. He wasn't really trying to break her blocks though. He fell back and went back to his frozen stance.

"Good," he said. "You know how to block now. To parry, all you have to do is to successfully block and quickly attack while you're still blocking. Blocking is just one of the many ways to avoid an enemy's attacks. The others are dodging, which is just leaping back away from the attacker or rolling out of the way. Sometimes you're going to want to dodge instead of block due to the enemy's strength. Not all blocks will be able to hold, especially against enemies that are stronger than you. They will be able to break your blocks and strike you. You'll need to be careful against them and use your best judgment in which strategy will be best. Got it?"

"Yeah," Cell said.

"Alright, let's put your trainings together and see how you do in a full fight," he said. "When you're ready, just try and hit me."

Cell gripped her sword at Tidus' suggestion. Already being thrown into a fight during the tutorial was not something she expected, but she would take it. Not being able to hit him so far was kind of annoying. While he was only an NPC and programmed to be this way, his hyped up attitude and fighting style was getting old. She just wanted to hit something and now she was presented with a chance.

She lunged at Tidus and went to swing at his torso once again. Somewhat expected, Tidus dodged by leaping back. She didn't know what she was expecting, if she was going to be able to hit him, but she should've known that she wasn't going to land a hit that easily, especially after he blocked it so easily last time. But this time, he didn't parry her, so she could still strike. Without waiting, she swung once more, this time aiming low at his legs. In a blink of a second, Tidus dropped his sword down, blocking her attack swiftly. Her sword clunked against his. With her sword still connected to his, he brought up his sword, almost disarming her. Cell managed to fall back with her sword in her hand just in time to avoid being disarmed.

She had to reevaluate the situation quickly if she was going to win. It was only the tutorial, but she was already losing. It was because she wasn't thinking. She wasn't going to be able to beat him senselessly like she had originally wanted. She had to swallow down her emotions and try to think clearly. Tidus had even warned that she was going to have to have to use a strategy. She had to figure out something before she lost.

However now it was Tidus' turn.

"Get ready to lose!" he shouted, bringing up his sword.

He brought it down on Cell's shoulder. Despite the sword being wood, it still hurt. Cell stumbled back after the hit, clutching her shoulder. She didn't even try to avoid the attack and now she regretted it. She didn't want to lose to the tutorial and especially not to some toy sword.

"Come on!" he cheered, lunging towards her again.

He swung again, though Cell rolled out of the way. It went this way as Cell tried to think of a strategy to beat the fight. Tidus would go to attack and Cell would dodge. This was getting them nowhere though.

 _I would try to hit him, but he would just block and parry,_ Cell thought.

Then it hit her. She would just use his strategy against him. The next attack he swung at her was one at her legs. She mimicked him and dropped her sword down to block his attack. She brought her sword up just as they made contact. Tidus had a strong grip on his sword, so she wasn't going to be able to disarm him. However, she was able to send his attack to her side and was given a clear chance to attack him. Given the chance, she took it. In a stabbing motion, she hit him in the stomach with her sword. He fell back, gripping his stomach with one of his arms.

 _For someone strong, he doesn't appear to have a whole lot of health,_ she thought.

A couple more hits and the fight would be done. Cell waited, preparing to block another attack. She wasn't going to attack him first, afraid of being parried. Instead she waited form him to strike her. And he did soon enough. Letting go of his stomach, he held his sword with two hands and sprung at her. Cell swung her sword down, hitting his attack before it could hit her. She continued to swing down, sending his attack to the ground. Then she slid her sword up and hit him directly in the chest. He went to fall back, but before he could, Cell attacked again. Tidus was weakened by the two successful attacks that he had no chance to block her attack. She managed to hit him hard against his arm that held his sword and with the strike, his health dropped and so did he. He dropped to one knee and let go of his sword so it fell on the sand. He was defeated.

"You managed to beat me," he said while panting once more. "No fair!"

He dropped his head in loss and continued.

"Looks like you're able to protect yourself, so you should do fine," he said. "You'll first go to Destiny Islands where you'll start off your journey through Kingdom Hearts Debut. Find me again when you get there to get your first quest."

He didn't move, but the world around them did. Everything became blurry and started to wave, as if they were fading out of reality. Tidus' figure followed suit and soon became blurry to. Cell felt sick as everything seemed to melt around her. It looked like she finished the tutorial and was going to start the game. Sure she was happy about finishing the tutorial, but she just wished the transition wasn't so twisted.

* * *

 **I finally finished the second chapter. I had originally typed this up around Halloween, but I didn't like how it was. I had it involve Selphie training Cell and, in my mind, that didn't make sense. Tidus was really the only one on the islands (aside from Sora and Riku) who fought with a true melee weapon. (I also changed his weapon from the stick to a sword.) The chapter is also a lot longer than what I originally had typed.**

 **Tidus is the melee-trainer, who trains sword-wielders and hammer-wielders in the tutorial. Wakka is the ranged-trainer, who trains circle-wielders and bow-wielders in the tutorial. Seeing how there are no "magic user" originally on Destiny Islands, Selphie helps train the wand-wielders and staff-wielders in the tutorial, though isn't considered the "magic-trainer".**

 **The first world players will interact with is Destiny Islands, just like in the original game. So Cell will be starting there too. Also, she will be the first of many other OC's while there.**


End file.
